Winner, Creepiest Athletics Logo

With his chiseled face, military-style cap and saber poised for action, the recently unveiled mascot at Nicholls State University was supposed to convey a new and improved public image, signaling a break from the past and an end to the mascot controversy that has dogged the Thibodaux campus for years.

The best college sports mascots and logos strike fear into the hearts of competitors, but Nicholls State University has managed to terrify its own alumni with its revamped logo.

“It looked like a Nazi soldier — a very angry Nazi soldier,” Hollie Garrison, a Nicholls alumna, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “My jaw dropped. I was speechless. I kind of thought it was a joke.”

Let’s hope the controversy has settled by next week, when Nicholls State unveils the new uniform of its mascot, Col. Tillou, named for the former Louisiana governor and Confederate officer Francis Redding Tillou Nicholls.